Michelle Tant

(April 2015) Contrary to the information the media would have us believe, a majority of women still will go into labour without the need for induction and will give birth vaginally (NICE 2014). Currently however most of those women will also birth in an obstetric unit, though hopefully the dissemination of the new NICE guidance will start to have an impact of chosen place of birth given that around 45% of women are at low risk of complications in labour. So it would seem that most midwifery care in labour is given to women on a high risk unit at present. As a student midwives we are taught about the normal physiology of birth, that the mechanism of labour is facilitated by a delicate balance of hormones and that oxytocin is an element to be treasured and worked with. Of course we are also taught about when labour and birth takes a more complicated route and what action to take in those situations, and the inclination sometimes is to imagine that all normality is left behind in t...

I haven't updated this blog for a little while but it seems fitting to break the fast with the wonderful news today that NICE guidance has finally been updated to reflect the evidence surrounding birthing at home, one to one midwifery care, delayed cord clamping and minimising separation of mother and baby. You can view the updated guidance here: http://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/CG190 While I am over the moon at the update I can't help the feeling that this is a little like teaching Grandma to suck eggs and actually most of this is good old fashioned excellent midwifery philosophy already but it would seem churlish to point this out at length. What is key however is that while much of it is midwifery wisdom - what midwife will argue that one to one care and keeping mother and baby together needs new research and evidence to inform our practice with this - it is not yet in the public forum. Women have been scared out of having their babies at home and this latest guidance...

When I was pregnant with my 3rd child, I mentioned to my midwife that I had an interest in having a homebirth. For a couple of panic stricken moments she simply stared at me. On that basis alone you would assume that she was anti-homebirth. But I happen to know she's not. Her reaction was purely to do with my birthing history. My first child was born by cesarean section. When I got pregnant that first time, I was full of plans for a natural birth. My own mother had given birth naturally with no problems, 5 times. In fact of all the women in my life I only knew one who'd had a section and that was following severe complications. So when it came about that I had to have a cesarean as a result of Jayden being in a transverse breech lie, I felt that my body had let me down without so much as a murmur of objection. They tried to turn him with an External Cephalic Version but no joy. I was booked to have him ejected through the fire escape a week later. Incidentally I went ...

Birth Story Daisy Caitlyn Born Tuesday 1st June 2010 at 10.08pm 8lb 6oz Around 8am on Tuesday morning I started to have contractions which started to come fairly regularly and around 7 mins apart, lasting 20-30 seconds so I started to get quite excited thinking that we’d have a baby by the end of the day. Kev postponed his lessons and we packed the kids off with a friend and waited for things to happen but they tailed off by lunchtime. Gutted! I had a midwife appointment booked for 2.10pm so we went along to that. I asked her to do another sweep and she said I was 3cm and ready to go, just a waiting game. She rang the hospital and booked an induction for Friday morning and off we went feeling a bit dejected! We went to a café for a cuppa before going to fetch the kids and while we were there the contractions came back. They started to come every 10 minutes or so but for some reason I didn’t really believe it this time and had already in my head written off the day! We headed home at ar...